Unlike what the govt would like you to believe, the reality is, your vote doesn't really matter. Your vote absolutely counts, but it doesn’t matter. Yes, you’ll change the total number of people who voted for one party, but you won’t change the outcome.
If everyone thought that way, then a fluke election result could happen - many in power would say, to frighten you. But the reality is everyone doesn't think that way. And even if you start thinking that way, your closest family member won't automatically follow you.
I have all past 12 general elections (GE) results to back me up on this. None of the 12 GEs came up with fluke results, not even close to one. The lowest that the PAP polled was in 2011, but still won 60.1 per cent of the total votes.
So the truth is you can just go out to the election booth and cast for the opposition or damage the vote, it doesn't really matter. Even if you have damaged your vote or refused to vote, they still need another vote to break any tie, not just your vote.
The chances of your vote becoming the decisive vote of which party to rule Singapore is 1 in 2.3 million (depending on total number of voters), as difficult as winning Toto lottery. It may take thousands of elections for any fluke results to happen, assuming no gerrymandering and tweaking of the election rules by the ruling party.
The argument that it is a duty of every citizen to vote, and exercise your sacred rights to decide the government, again doesn't hold water. The assumption here is that when you vote you will always vote the right people or party to best manage the country and it's resources. But we have seen how many MPs that the people voted, turn out to be scandalous individuals who needed to be replaced through by-elections. Their choice turned out to be hurting the voters themselves through bad policies and corrupt practises by those elected.
There is no guarantee that the PAP will take care of voters' needs and expectations, just as nobody can tell for sure, if the opposition could actually do a better job than the current government over time.
WHY PAP KNOWS YOUR VOTE DOESN'T MATTER
Over a period of about 20 years under the ironclad rule of Lee Kuan Yew, there was no opposition MP in the Parliament. It was embarrassing that every Parliamentary session was like a corporate meeting of PAP Incorporated, especially if one decides to telecast it on national TV.
So they started the Nominated MP scheme, now called Non-Constituency MP, where a few specially selected professionals or businessmen could ask some questions in Parliament, so as to provide some homework for the PAP Ministers and MPs to do, to justify their existence.
But this scheme, as long as it is still there, is a measurement of how confident the PAP is, of winning the next and future General Elections. As long as the number of opposition MPs is very low (say less than 20), the NCMP scheme will always be there.
In their best showing in 2011, the oppositions have 6 elected MPs in Parliament winning 6 out of the then 87 contested seats. That is less than 7% of the total number of seats, despite winning nearly 40% of the total votes in the General Election. This mismatch is so wide, it is unbelievable.
The voice of 40% of voters were represented by only 7% of the MPs in Parliament.
Gerrymandering of boundary, redesignating of Constituencies, the undemocratic GRC system, plus other constraints placed on the opposition helped made this happened. And it is why the NCMP scheme is still needed to make Parliament look less like a HQ of PAP.
So even if the opposition were to win say, 55% of the total votes, they will just have another 5 to 10 additional MPs in Parliament.
See? Your vote doesn't matter at all. PAP will still have around 80% of the MPs in Parliament despite losing the majority of total votes.
PAP would then have enough time to tweak the rules and Constitution to ensure the party stays in power in the following GE, if they decides to have one.
Remember, they also have the power to suspend GE in the name of national security, but at the moment, they have enough of mechanism to ensure they do not need to resort to this trump card.
Now you know why PM Lee was always smiling when talking about General Election. It is a non-event to him, probably like a Circus coming to town that he needs to perform in once every few years. The power given to PAP over the last 53 years had allowed them to change the rules of the game so much in their favour that it really is making a mockery of the democratic process of having elections.
They have enough safety nets to entrenched themselves permanently as the govt of Singapore and what LKY once said is now a fact (see photo below). The PAP, with no apology, is the permanent government of Singapore. And with no apology, your vote doesn't really matter to them.
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